For years, iron ore was one thing Tata Steel never lost sleep over. Owning captive mines meant predictable supply, stable costs and a structural edge over rivals who depended on expensive mines acquired through auctions or remained at the mercy of the markets.
This is, however, set to change, as the company will lose the edge when its legacy mining leases begin to expire starting 2030.
To secure a stable supply for iron ore, the key raw material to make steel, the company has cast a wide net that stretches from the cold mountains of Labrador in Canada to the Gadchiroli forests in Maharashtra.
“Maharashtra, Canada, all these are options to post 2030,” T.V. Narendran, chief executive officer of Tata Steel told Mint on Monday, describing the company’s efforts at securing iron ore supplies. This, he said, was in addition to the mines it has acquired in India under the new auction regime.
Tata Steel, the oldest steelmaker in Asia, currently meets 100% of its iron ore requirements in India through its six legacy mines awarded to it before the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015, which requires all mines to be auctioned, rather than nominated by the government.
Domestic tie-ups
India’s second largest steelmaker has joined hands with a key player in central India’s mineral ecosystem, who has managed to successfully mine iron ore—and will soon also be making steel from this ore—in a Maoist conflict-prone region that few businesses dared to venture into.
In December 2025, Tata Steel acquired a 50.01% stake in Thriveni Pellets Pvt Ltd. (TPPL), forming a joint venture with Lloyd Metals & Energy Ltd. TPPL owns 100% stake in Brahmani River Pellet Ltd. (BRPL) that operates a 4 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) pellet plant at Jajpur, Odisha, along with a 212-km slurry pipeline. Pellets are small, hardened balls made of iron ore and used in steel production.
More importantly, the steelmaker also signed a memorandum of understanding with Lloyds Metals & Energy to explore mining opportunities in Maharashtra to increase the production of iron ore.
“We are seeing opportunities as the Maharashtra government looks at the entire Gadchiroli area for development and for mining, we will be keen to participate and understand,” said Koushik Chatterjee, the chief financial officer of Tata Steel. The company is also evaluating how it can partner with Lloyds on the steelmaking side, he said.
Overseas opportunity
The steelmaker has also tapped into its Canadian subsidiary, Tata Steel Minerals Canada. In January, the company flagged off a test shipment of iron ore from Canada for its domestic operations, Mint had reported earlier. While the shipment is yet to reach Indian shores, it could be one of the solutions to the company’s iron ore quandary beyond 2030, Narendran said.
The costs that Canadian iron ore adds in terms of logistics is offset by its superior quality, he said. The ore from Labrador has iron content of above 67% and less than 1% of alumina impurity, Narendran said. Low alumina iron ore is considered superior in steelmaking because it improves blast furnace productivity.
The company plans to blend this higher grade ore with domestic raw material to improve the charge it puts in its blast furnaces.
“So, it's an optionality that we have, which we want to test out well before 2030, so that we can decide on our plans for the Canadian mine depending on its utility for India,” Narendran said, adding that for now the Canadian arm is exporting the ore to Europe and a little to China.
The Canadian mine has 3 mtpa capacity, but it can be increased to 10 mtpa as it has sufficient reserves, he said. For context, Tata Steel mined a record 40.5 million tonnes of iron ore in FY25, which helped it produce 21.8 million tonnes of steel.
“If everyone is going to bid 100% plus for iron ore mines in India, then the cost of iron ore in India is going to be equivalent to 130-140% of the international market. So, imports become an option,” said Narendran.
Need policy support for UK profitability
Tata Steel will miss its guidance of achieving an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) breakeven in the UK by the end of this fiscal year owing to low prices and stiff competition from cheap imports.
Tata Steel’s UK operations continue to weigh on the company’s overall performance, even after an expensive restructuring over the past year that has seen the company shut old equipment and lay off a significant chunk of its workforce.
Hot-rolled coil prices in the UK are currently around £500–510 per tonne, about £100 short of levels needed to break even, the company’s top executives said, adding that they are hopeful of some policy support soon.
Tata Steel has repeatedly flagged that unlike the EU, the UK has not imposed adequate safeguard duties or import restrictions, thus allowing cheaper imports to curb prices. The transition to electric arc furnace (EAF)-based production is, however, expected to structurally improve costs over the medium term.
For now, “UK will not get worse, it will not get much better, maybe slightly better" in the current quarter, said Narendran, adding that it is not possible to break even at the current prices, “unless there is some action by the government”.
The Mumbai-headquartered steelmaker reported a 6% year-on-year (y-o-y) jump in consolidated revenue to ₹57,002.40 crore for the third quarter of FY26, compared to ₹53,648.3 crore a year ago. In Q2 of FY26, its revenue was higher at ₹58,689 crore. Last Friday, the company reported a ₹2,688.7-crore consolidated net profit attributable to the owners.
In its overseas operations, the steelmaker’s operations in the Netherlands reported an Ebitda of €55 million, significantly lower than the €92 million in Q2, while the UK losses narrowed to £63 million from £66 million in Q2.
Tata Steel expects pricing to improve sequentially in the March quarter, driven by a recovery in the Indian as well as the European markets. In India, the company has guided for a quarter-on-quarter improvement of about ₹2,200 per tonne in net realizations for Q4, reflecting price hikes taken towards the end of December and improving demand conditions. Volumes are also seen higher.
In Europe, pricing trends are mixed but stabilizing. While spot steel prices have risen in recent months, Tata Steel expects average realizations in Europe to be about €30 per tonne lower sequentially due to the product mix, as incremental volumes are skewed towards lower-priced segments such as engineering, rather than automotive or packaging.
However, Narendran said this impact will be more than offset by cost take-outs, particularly in the Netherlands, where Ebitda is expected to improve. In the UK, prices have edged up only marginally, leaving operations below break-even levels, with a meaningful recovery dependent on policy intervention by the government.